Province Also Investing in Police Training, Investigations, and Public Education

Ontario is stepping up support for municipalities and law enforcement to help ensure communities and roads are safe in advance of the federal government’s legalization of cannabis.

The province will provide $40 million of its revenue from the federal excise duty on recreational cannabis over two years to help all municipalities with implementation costs related to the legalization of cannabis.

In addition, Ontario is taking further steps to ensure a safe and sensible transition for communities and people by:

Increasing the capacity of local law enforcement, including the Ontario Provincial Police, by funding sobriety field test training for police officers to help detect impaired drivers

Creating a specialized legal team to support drug-impaired driving prosecutions

Increasing capacity at the province’s Centre of Forensic Sciences to support toxicological testing and expert testimony

Developing a program to divert youth involved in minor cannabis-related offences away from the criminal justice system

Creating a Cannabis Intelligence Coordination Centre to shut down illegal storefronts and help fight the unsafe and illegal supply of cannabis products

Providing public health units with support and resources to help address local needs related to cannabis legalization

Raising awareness of the new provincial rules that will take effect when cannabis is legalized federally.

Ontario’s plan to create fairness and opportunity during this period of rapid economic change includes a higher minimum wage and better working conditions, free tuition for hundreds of thousands of students, easier access to affordable child care, and free prescription drugs for everyone under 25 through the biggest expansion of medicare in a generation.

QUICK FACTS

Funding will be distributed to municipalities on a per household basis, adjusted to ensure that each municipal government receives no less than $10,000.

If the province’s portion of the revenue from federal excise duty on recreational cannabis for the first two years of legalization exceeds $100 million, the province will provide municipal governments with 50 per cent of the surplus.

The Ontario Cannabis Act includes strong deterrents to discourage illegal cannabis activities, including high fines for individuals or corporations convicted of illegal selling or distribution, tough provincial penalties for driving while impaired and zero tolerance for young, novice and commercial drivers who drive with cannabis in their system.